View full sizeMadison County Commissioner Jerry Craig is proposing salary increases totaling about $125,000 a year for employees in District 3. (The Huntsville Times/File photo)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Local Republican official Elbert Peters is asking Republicans to attend today's Madison County Commission meeting to oppose "exorbitant" salary increases proposed by outgoing Democratic Commissioner Jerry Craig for more than two dozen of Craig's employees.

Craig, who leaves office in November after seven terms, is proposing pay increases for 26 District 3 employees, according to supporting agenda documents furnished by Peters. Many of the proposed raises are 10 percent salary increases, but four are more than 20 percent, including one of 38 percent.

The commission meets at 10 a.m. today on the seventh floor of the Madison County Courthouse.

Peters said he hopes to have as many Republicans as possible at the meeting to show that they don't approve the "exorbitant pay raises" proposed by Craig.

Peters said he takes issue with the number of employees being considered for a raise and that Craig is proposing the salary increases in the last weeks of his tenure on the commission.

Asked if Craig is trying to take care of employees before he leaves office, Peters said, "It looks that way."

Craig couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

Most of the proposed pay raises are connected to proposed promotions for the district employees, the documents show.

Some of the large percentage pay increases involve smaller amounts of real dollars. For example, an employee up for promotion from utility laborer II to utility laborer III would see a 38 percent salary increase from $21,881 a year to $30,180, documents show. An equipment operator up for promotion to a higher grade equipment operator would get a 28 percent raise from $24,752 per year to $31,699.

"Why would you have promotions right at the end of your term?" Peters asked.

Peters said in an email that the proposed salaries total about $125,000 a year.

"The cost to Madison County taxpayers during the lifetime of these employees could be in the millions of dollars," Peters said in the email.

The documents show that the proposed pay raises for all of the employees meet guidelines established by the commission, have been approved by personnel officials, and that the money is available in the District 3 budget to pay for the raise.

"Just because the money is available for this, doesn't mean it should be spent for this," Peters said.

He said the proposed salary increases are another example of government bureaucracy.

He said a friend told him, "There's no end to the good that do-gooders can do when they're doing it with other folk's money."